LAKE VICTORIA BASIN

Rwanda’s Marshlands

The marshlands are the most physically and chemically heterogeneous of all aquatic ecosystems in Rwanda. They are seasonal wetlands. The water table is near or above the lowest ground surface during the wet season and the floodplains are generally narrow (less than 200 m wide) or fairly short in length (REMA 2011). The most recent inventory of wetlands conducted in 2008 by the Rwanda Environment Management Authority, showed that Rwanda has 860 marshlands covering an area of 278,536 ha (10.6 per cent of the country’s surface area) and 101 lakes covering a total of 149,487 ha (REMA 2011). The biggest marshlands are clustered around the rivers. The Rugezi and Kamiranzovu wetlands are high altitude wetlands; most of the others are at low altitude. Over recent years, enormous pressure has been exerted on the water and wetland resources of Rwanda through a variety of emerging and increasing uses driven by the growing population. Some of these threats include agricultural intensification, pollution, invasive species, overuse and an inadequate institutional framework to manage the wetlands. Some of these threats have affected both the quantity and quality of the water supply. Climate change is also contributing to degradation of swamps. With decreasing amounts of rainfall, the hydrological regime of wetlands is increasingly under threat.

Bugesera marshes along the Nyabarongo River

Rwandanmarshlands

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